30,489 Apply for 2,110 Spots at Harvard = 6.9%

[TruePaige]

But you're characterizing it wrong. Its just a weird line of logic that makes assumptions that just aren't there. You keep putting Aff Action on a pedestal. The two people compared for acceptance essentially have an equal chance of getting in. Roughly equal means that they both have similar GPA's, extracurricular, etc etc or difference GPA"s and extracurriculars, but the sum of them combined is roughly equal. Its impossible to make exact comparisons in an admissions process.
Thats why the comparison between a 4.0 gpa vs a 3.6 is idiotic. Its quite possible the 4.0 GPA has done nothing in the way of extracurricular, while the 3.6 has put in 20 hours of community service a week and does all manners of sports.

Aff action literally is, if you have 2 roughly equal applicants, and if you had to submit a report saying why you chose one over another, you can say because he was a minority. There are a million reasons why you can reject one applicant over another even though they had roughly the same ability. This is just another one of those reasons,

Well I am pretty sure everyone discussing the topic is doing so in the same situation of equal non-performance based criteria. When it comes to performance based criteria though extra leeway is given to minorities which is racist.

 

[JJChicken]

that seems like pretty good odds to me. 20,000 of those people probably don't have a chance.

This.